Harry Potter and the philosopher's Stone set designs by Stephen Morahan.
Source: http://www.filmdesign.com/index.html
The swinging staircase in the Harry Potter films where the staircase was made to turn practically had to have a steel frame hidden within the stair flight and landing which also included a slew ring. The stair flight was supported by steel trusses within the handrail, balusters and treads as the 'stone' treads were not thick enough to have accommodated enough steel alone. The steel tube within Harry Potter's broomstick was designed to minimise weight but also ensure its strength to carry the weight of the artists as the broom stick was attached to a SFX rig away from the broomstick.
SFX Rig Design
Utilising structural engineering skills and knowledge Stephen is able to design SFX rigs. Often elements of a set or sometimes the whole set require supporting steelwork to hold them on the SFX rig or the SFX rig within the set. Working with the Special Effects technicians their requirements can be worked into the set drawings. The swinging staircase in the Harry Potter movies relies on a circular slew ring built into the landing which is square. The landing itself was not to rotate so over-lapping plates were design to maintain the square landing so the artists could safely walk over the landing whilst the staircase turned. The whole mechanism was designed to fit within the 8" thickness of the landing and to support the weight of the staircase with the artists aboard.
